Sun Changes Its Mind, MySQL Tools to Remain Open Source

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Sun Changes Its Mind, MySQL Tools to Remain Open Source

Sun has announced that, contrary to ideas it floated earlier, MySQL and all its accompanying tools will remain open source. Although Sun has never suggested that the MySQL database server itself would become closed source, the company did say that it was thinking about making some of the backup tools and encryption packages closed source, which sparked an uproar in the MySQL community.

However the company has changed its mind, announcing at the recent CommunityOne conference that the encryption and compression backup features will remain open source. Kaj Arnö, MySQL VP of Community Relations, repeated Sun's statement on his MySQL developer blog, affirming that “MySQL Server is and will always remain fully functional and open source, so will the MySQL Connectors, and so will the main storage engines we ship.”

That should be welcome news for some of the developers concerned about Sun's plans for MySQL.

Arnö goes on to say that users should “expect Sun/MySQL to continue experimenting with the business model, and with what's offered for the community and what's offered commercial-only.”

Neither Arnö nor Sun gives any direct reason for the company's change of heart, though it wouldn't be a stretch to say that the community response was at least partially the source of Sun's reversal.